Aug 16 Millennial, sustainable

Millennial investors believe that their own investment decisions can influence climate change and alleviate poverty

Sustainable, responsible and impact investing spiked between 2014 and 2016 in the US, growing at a rate of more than 33%, from $6.57 trillion to $8.72 trillion. And investors, particularly millennials, believe that their investment decisions can influence the issues they care about, according to the Sustainable Signals report from Morgan Stanley.

And millennial investors are nearly twice as likely as the general pool of investors to have made a purchase because of a brand’s environmental or social impact, and three times more likely to work at, or apply to, a company because of its stance on issues.

In addition, substantial majorities of millennial investors believe that their own investment decisions can influence climate change (75%) and alleviate poverty (84%).

“Consciousness around sustainability has leapt from the consumer space to the investment space,” says the report. “Investor attention to sustainability factors is now growing faster than consumer attention.”